State transportation department bought United Sound Systems Recording Studios and its parking lot for $1.7 million

Decision was years in the making, as MDOT sought a way to avoid harming the historic property while getting I-94 rebuilt

Aretha Franklin, Miles Davis among those to record hits there

Alexander Real Estate Detroit LLC

United Sound Systems opened in 1933 as a producer of ad jingles. It's since recorded classic pop, rock and R&B hits.

The Michigan Department of Transportation will move the storied United Sound recording studio in Detroit to make way to expand I-94.

MDOT bought the United Sound Systems Recording Studios at 5840 Second Ave. in Midtown and its adjacent parking lot Dec. 14 for $1.7 million. It plans to sell the historic building at public auction after moving it slightly north onto the parking lot, away from the retaining walls expected to be built for the I-94 modernization project.

The department hasn't yet determined a cost or timeline for the move, spokesman Rob Morosi said.

The building was listed for sale for $1.5 million in June this year, Curbed Detroit reported.

United Sound, Detroit's first major independent recording studio, has been jeopardized by impending I-94 highway widening over the years. Detroit City Council designated it a historic district in 2015, but from 2005 until around then, demolition was a major possibility.

Multiple attempts were made to contact the studio Friday.

The decision to buy and move the building was made in consultation with the State Historic Preservation Office to protect United Sound from harm due to road construction work, MDOT said in a news release.

MDOT is required by federal law to look for ways to avoid impacting historical structures. Considerations on buying the building, moving it or moving the I-94 roadwork go back several years.

The I-94 project involves rebuilding the highway, adding an extra through-lane in each direction between Conner Street and I-96, and replacing 67 bridges. Bridge work is underway but highway expansion requires more study.

The state has been gathering feedback and making changes to address public concern about the I-94 project's footprint in Detroit since at least 2015, as the city's landscape changed and Midtown made a resurgence.

Hit-maker

The list of stars who recorded hits at United Sound is expansive — from Miles Davis to Aretha Franklin and the Rolling Stones. It's still a functioning recording studio, hosts workshops and is home to a museum, according to its website and social media.

It's also one of the places where Franklin was memorialized after her death last year.

MDOT plans to close the studio around when preparations for the move begin, Morosi said. The studio's fate after it is moved and goes to public auction depends on what sorts of historic preservation requirements are written into the property deed, he said, and who buys it.

"We are happy that MDOT has come to this pledge," said Carleton Gholz, founder and executive director of Detroit Sound Conservancy, which has advocated for United Sound as a historic property since 2012. "So we’re going to keep showing up for the long-term preservation of the legacy (of United Sound). What that looks like, who will eventually own it, what will go on in that building ... it’s highly in flux, and that’s why it's important to have an organization like Detroit Sound Conservancy that has a track record of showing up for the building and will continue to show up for the building."

Though its history remains a bright spot in the music world, United Sound has been entangled in crime reports in recent years. Federal court records detailed by Crain'sin 2016 alleged the historic venue was bought money from alleged drug dealer Dwayne Richards. Federal prosecutors asked a judge to have the property forfeited to the government.

The United Sound property's most recent purchaser is Richards' cousin Danielle Scott, who bought the foreclosed property for $20,000 in 2009, according to city records. It reopened to the public in 2014.

"If that place comes down, it will cut the heart out of the Detroit music business," businessman Ed Wolfrum, the studio's chief engineer from the late 1960s through early 1970s, told Crain's in 2016.